Bus Plotter II: Linear Extrapolation

September 24th, 2010
mbta, mbtaplot, programming, python, tech, transport
I've modified the bus plotter so that it will estimate bus locations based on simple linear extrapolation from it's last two reported locations. One downside is this often makes buses go off the route, so I think I'm going to make buses "snap" to their routes when within some distance. Even smarter would be to either do my own predictions or figure out some way to use the nextbus predictions. Unfortunately, it appears nextbus's webservice only has a command to request predictions by stop, not by bus. Bother.

This is what it looks like on the 77 route (which is an unfairly flattering example because the route is pretty straight).

Comment via: substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Linkpost for March

Effective Altruism

via Thing of Things March 2, 2026

The Newest Technology in Frozen

There are lots of different things in Frozen that are new-ish, but my dad and I were wondering: what is the actual newest thing in Frozen? This led me to watch Frozen a lot while taking notes. Some of the things I found included: Elastic hair-ties A safety …

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts March 1, 2026

2025-26 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Highlights include a minimal group house, the usefulness…

via Victoria Krakovna January 19, 2026

more     (via openring)